On Studying Japanese: Disappearing Electricity
Studying Japanese, or any other language for that matter, is a challenging and frustrating experience, but quite rewarding if you put the time in. My favorite part of studying a foreign language is the moments of insight, usually quite small and nuanced, that introduce a new perspective or deepen cultural understanding.
Prior to the Japan chronicles, my experience with languages extended to only a couple of the romance languages, Spanish and Latin. Latin was enjoyable because our teacher was crazy (that fun kind of I-love-Latin-more-than-anything-else crazy that only Latin teachers possess) and the etymological aspect was interesting. Etymology is your standard, run-of-the-mill language insight that you expect to receive when taking a language class. I can’t recall any moments of surprise and reflection during my tenure as a Latin student, though I do remember asking, in Latin I, if the phrase ‘Aes Sedia’ had any meaning (if you are familiar with The Wheel of Time books then you know what I’m talking about). However, I’m not interested in what’s expected, but rather what is unexpected, the insights that make you go hmmmmmmmmm.